Shadows
by Poetgirl925
Summary: When Chloe disappears from Metropolis, Oliver pulls himself from his downward spiral and the Justice League reunites to find out what happened to her.  With allies old and new, the search leads to a secret government agency and eventually to Gotham City.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note: If you're waiting on the update for Letting Go, I promise it's coming. My netbook locked up week before last and I ended up having to take it to a computer shop. Unfortunately my netbook is what I use most for writing and I didn't have the recent chapters backed up yet, but the guy told me that he didn't think I'd lose anything. I get it back this weekend, so updates will be posted as soon as I get it.**

**Meanwhile, I decided to start writing this story because it's been in my head for a while. Pretty much follows canon through S9 'Echo' but picks up before Chloe implemented her plan to bring Oliver back in 'Roulette.' It's a little darker, so let me know how this part works! As usual, no Beta so all mistakes are my own.**

_Prologue_

He didn't know her – not really, anyway. He didn't know her name or where she came from, whether she had family or friends, where she worked; and yet he _knew_ her. She wasn't like the multitudes of other nameless, faceless people he passed every day. Something about her was different, and it took him a while to recognize what that difference was. She wasn't like the others because she was like _him_.

He hadn't always been broken. Before he'd gone off to war, he'd had dreams of being something – exactly what, he wasn't sure, but he knew he would have been _something_. And then a couple of well-aimed airplane missiles had brought down the Towers in New York and as they crumbled, a country's faith in its own security began to crumble as well. He still remembered the disconnected feeling of shock as he'd watched it all unfold on TV like a summer blockbuster; but the anger had swiftly followed. With only one semester remaining to finish his degree, and to the dismay of his family, he'd marched into his local Army recruiters' office and signed himself up. He remembered the pride he'd felt, the sense of altruism as he vowed to defend his country or die trying.

Ten years and five tours later, what he'd learned was that there was nothing truly glorious about war or dying a hero's death. He'd seen terrible things happen to people on both sides of the battle lines, and tormented faces haunted his dreams. People suffered in war, and rarely was it those responsible for setting the events in motion. He wouldn't say he regretted his choices exactly, but they had changed him in irrevocable ways. He'd left pieces of himself in that godforsaken desert, and the voices of all those lost souls had followed him home.

In the two years since he'd been discharged, he had tried to pick up his life in Metropolis. He signed up for classes to finish his degree in Business Administration, but he found that he couldn't stand to sit in the classrooms with all of the young, naïve students who had no idea how the world really was. He also couldn't sleep without the security of his rifle; in the end, he'd cut a length of wood to mimic the size and weight of his rifle as it rested by his side in bed. He'd failed every class that semester, so he shelved his old dreams and took a job working for a storage company down on the docks. The mindless physical activity appealed to him and more importantly, it tired him enough to quiet the voices in his head.

He'd been walking home from the docks the first time he saw her, blonde curls shining like angel wings beneath the streetlights. He always took notice of everyone around him, but he never really saw them. She was different; and without even thinking too deeply about why, he had followed her from a safe distance. She had gone into a coffee shop, emerging with a large cup of coffee and a small pastry bag. She had then walked back in the direction from which they had come, and again he followed her, watching as she entered a towering building.

He wasn't sure why he followed her that first time, nor did he understand why he continued to watch for her on his solitary walks home from the docks each night. As their paths continued to cross, however, he began to look forward to seeing her. After a while he realized that he was drawn to her because she, like him, had demons haunting her. Shadows clung to her just as they did to him; but what fascinated him most was the focused energy that she exhibited. She was always alone, and he wondered how someone like her could have ended up so abandoned. And despite her air of purpose, he sensed fragility beneath the front; it was that which pulled at his humanity in a way nothing else had in years.

He had been careful not to attract her attention because he didn't want to scare her. He didn't mean her any harm, but he knew he was dangerously close to stalking her as he waited and watched for her each day, following her to the coffee shop, occasionally to a neighborhood bookstore, and once to the _Daily Planet_. Apparently he hadn't been careful enough though, because he saw her giving him suspicious glances one day. After that he just sat on a bench across from the building she always returned to, content with making sure she got inside safely.

It never occurred to him to try to talk to her. And then one day she came to him as he kept his vigil on the bench. He sat there, watching warily as she walked up slowly, holding an extra bag. She handed it to him, along with a cup of coffee. He was too surprised to say anything, and she didn't speak either; she simply turned and walked back across the street and into her building.

He spent the next day wondering why she had done that. Did she think he was homeless, that he had no money and nowhere to go? It was possible – he was certainly dirty every night after he finished work, and his clothes were drab and worn. He supposed it was better to let her believe that, but another thought that returned, over and over, was that maybe she recognized in him the same things that he had seen in her.

That night he sat on the bench and waited as he had for so many nights previously. After much internal debate, he'd decided to talk to her if she approached him again. He hadn't been there long when he saw her come out of the building. She paused and looked in his direction, and that was when he saw it. Like one of his nightmare shadows come to life it dropped from the sky, descending towards her with alarming speed. Even before he leapt into motion, he knew he would never reach her in time. Moments later she was gone, and he dropped to his knees as her face joined the countless, nameless others he'd failed to save.

_Two weeks later in Star City_

Oliver leaned into the bar, ignoring the loud fans around him as a football game went into overtime. Seedy sports bars weren't really his scene, but he had wanted a little more anonymity that night. He picked up his shot and downed it, chasing it with the cold beer he'd ordered. It was just one more in a long string of nights he'd spent drinking or engaging in self-destructive behavior. After the latest incident with Toyman he'd felt the need to get out of Metropolis, and he'd made his way back to Star City. He wasn't sure what he'd been hoping for by returning to his hometown, but the change of scenery had done nothing to lift his melancholy or the feelings of worthlessness that plagued him.

He downed another shot as a loud cheer signaled the end of the game. The man beside him jostled his arm, causing Oliver to spill one of the shots lined up in front of him. Without looking at the guy he said loudly, "If you could keep your gorilla arms to yourself, that'd be great." He sensed the guy turning towards him, but he ignored him as he picked up his beer and took a long pull.

"You're kind of pretty to be talking smack," he heard Gorilla Arms say.

Oliver picked up another shot. "I'm flattered, but not nearly drunk enough to swing your way."

He heard some of the guys laugh, along with a few asking if Chuck (he assumed that was Gorilla Arms) was going to let 'Pretty Boy' talk to him that way. Suddenly, he was hauled off the bar stool and shoved back into the bar as a large, semi-balding man got in his face. "What the fuck is your problem? You got a death wish or something?"

_That was exactly what he had_, Oliver thought. He shoved back as adrenaline rushed through him and he prepared for an all-out bar brawl. And just as suddenly as it all started, it ended as Gorilla Arms was forcibly pulled away from Oliver.

"He might be too drunk to hand your ass to you, but I guarantee you I'm not. Let's call this one a draw, boys." Hal Jordan stepped between them, facing down the angry men with calm resolve. Oliver watched them consider their odds before they walked away, grumbling.

Oliver turned back to the bar and downed another shot, welcoming the burn that momentarily chased away the chill as he asked, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Hal leaned against the bar beside Oliver, signaling the bartender for a beer. "Apparently I'm saving 'Pretty Boy' from having his ass kicked. You're welcome, by the way."

Oliver snorted. "One, I didn't ask for your help and two… I thought you were off on some extended E.T. mission."

Hal shrugged. "Been back a few days – and imagine my surprise to find my old friend Oliver up to some very old and very dumb tricks. Want to tell me what's going on with you? Because I thought you were past shit like this."

Oliver took another pull on his beer, eyeing the TV mounted in front of them as he ignored his old friend. His attention was caught by the news story in progress as he saw images of Metropolis flashing across the screen, followed by what looked to be a news conference. His brows snapped together as he saw Martha Kent and Lois talking to a reporter, and he set his beer down with a thud. "Hey turn up the volume!" He called out to the bartender.

The bartender barely glanced in their direction, but he did turn up the volume as he passed the TV nearest to them. Hal followed Oliver's gaze. "I saw that news story earlier; damn shame about this missing girl. It was why I was looking for you, actually. I was thinking about heading over to Metropolis to see what I could find out."

But Oliver wasn't listening to Hal anymore as photos of a pretty, blonde girl flashed across the screen. His stomach lurched painfully as he realized that the missing girl in Metropolis was Chloe Sullivan.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Many of you have expressed quite a lot of interest in the anonymous character who witnessed Chloe's abduction. You will find out more about him in the coming chapters, and he and Oliver have a confrontation in Ch. 3. I planned to have him play a minor role in the search for Chloe, but I'm open to trying to include him more if this is something you guys think would be interesting. So, let me know your thoughts on this!**

**On another topic, I got my netbook back and my Word files are all there, but they've been corrupted somehow. For example, Ch. 10-12 of Letting Go have weird symbols interspersed with the text. Has anyone ever had this problem before and if so, is there a way to eliminate the symbols other than manually? I spent hours on this earlier today, but haven't finished cleaning up Ch. 10 yet. If you have suggestions, please share!**

Chapter 1

Since Hal had planned to check in with his family before going to Metropolis, Oliver called for his jet and headed back to his penthouse in Star City to shower and pack a bag. Feeling more sober than he had in months, he pulled out his laptop and began to search for stories about Chloe's disappearance. While there were a lot of stories from the past week, when interest in her abduction had begun to rise, there were few details provided. Apparently Chloe had last been seen on a Monday and Lois had filed a missing persons report on the following Thursday.

The reason for the rising interest in Chloe's disappearance, as far as Oliver could determine, was that Lois had run across a police report in which an anonymous caller stated that he had witnessed a woman's abduction on Tuesday. The woman fit Chloe's description, and Oliver realized that the location given by the caller was outside the building he had helped Jimmy purchase for Chloe. From something Emil had said the last time he saw him in Metropolis, he gathered that Chloe had set up computers there and was using it as a base of operations from which to help Clark. After that, he had started to think of the building as Watchtower.

He shifted his attention back to the news reports, which all gave the same information: that a young, blonde woman matching Chloe's description had, according to an anonymous tipster, been abducted by a 'shadow' that had dropped from the sky and disappeared just as quickly. Police had dismissed the report initially until Lois pointed out that the description matched that of her cousin.

Within days, it looked like Lois had rallied the troops, so to speak. An article detailed the arrival of Senator Martha Kent as well as Lois's father, General Sam Lane. After that, coverage had really taken off and volunteers across the city had joined the search. Oliver realized that all of this had been going on for more than a week and he hadn't had a clue. While he'd been drinking and engaging in one self-destructive behavior after another, Chloe had been taken and God only knew what had happened to her after that. He felt sick again just thinking about it, and it reinforced every feeling of worthlessness he'd been feeling since Jimmy was killed.

He slammed his laptop shut, wondering exactly where Clark was in this whole investigation. He had seen photos of Lois with Martha and her father, but had not seen or heard anything about Clark. He pulled out his phone, a new one that he had not given out the number for. He scrolled until he found Clark's number and frowned when he got his voicemail. "Clark, it's Oliver. I just heard about Chloe and I'm flying back into Metropolis later tonight. I was hoping that you knew more than I'm getting from the news reports, so… uh, call me when you get this."

He moved to put the phone down and then paused before scrolling through the names in his phone's directory once more. He hesitated once more before dialing Chloe's number.

'_Hi, this is Chloe. Leave a message and I'll call you back. And if this is Lois, please don't fill up my mailbox with Clark rants or rambling theories on your current stories – I love you, but you know I just delete them!'_

Oliver found himself smiling a little as he listened, imagining the smirk that often accompanied her snarky asides. He put the phone down and rubbed a hand over his face as he stood up and grabbed his bag before heading downstairs to meet his driver. Thirty minutes later he was aboard his jet, fighting off the headache that was now replacing his earlier buzz. He grabbed a bottle of water and washed down a couple of pain tablets. He closed his eyes and leaned back against his seat as he waited for his pilot to announce takeoff.

"Sobered up yet?"

Oliver opened his eyes to see Hal settling into a seat across from him. "I thought you were going to meet me in Metropolis?"

Hal leaned back against his own seat. "I figured the flight might give us some time to catch up. More specifically, I'd like to know what the hell happened to cause you to go off the deep end over the summer because I'm sure you know the tabloid stories are not flattering. Then I'd like to know what's so special about this missing girl and why her disappearance has you running back to Metropolis so damn fast. I gather that you know her?"

Oliver rubbed his temple as he drank some more water. "I used to date her cousin."

Hal's brows drew together. "Wait, the girl's cousin is that reporter Lois Lane – this is the same Lois you dated a few years ago?" When Oliver nodded he sat forward. "Ok, so you're going back to help Lois then?"

"Chloe was – is- a friend. Regardless of my past with Lois, I'd want to help find her."

Hal looked like he was finally putting some pieces together in his head as he said, "You told me once that you had someone in Metropolis who helped you gather information on all those 33.1 labs that you and your team took out. Chloe knew you were the Green Arrow, didn't she? She was the one helping you."

"Chloe knew about the whole team. She was smart, you know? Just figured us all out and never said a word until she realized we needed her help one time when Bart was in trouble."

"So I take it the whole team will be helping with this?"

Oliver rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I don't know because I haven't talked to the team – or to Chloe – in months. We had a mission that just went to Hell and Chloe… her ex-husband was killed. He shouldn't have been involved, but I brought him into it. I haven't seen her since the funeral."

Hal leaned forward as he asked, "Did she blame you?"

Oliver felt his chest burn as he let out a harsh breath. "You know, I think it would have been easier if she had? Jimmy wasn't in on all the secrets she was protecting, and she had tried to keep him out of it. It was the reason they got divorced and even though I was the one who got him involved, she told me it wasn't my fault. I just couldn't look at her – at any of them – after that."

Hal shook his head. "Man you've gotta stop doing stuff like this. Sometimes bad things happen, and we don't always make the best decisions, but punishing yourself won't change it and make it better for you or for anyone else." Hal was silent for a moment. "Her disappearance is damn strange, given this eyewitness account. Do you think it has something to do with her being plugged into the world of superheroes?"

"I don't know – I left a message for her friend Clark Kent. If anyone should know what she was doing, or possibly investigating, before she disappeared it's him."

"Kent, huh? I guess that explains the Senator's involvement. I also saw that she's the niece of General Sam Lane – with all of these resources at our disposal, we should be able to find out what happened to her."

Oliver looked out the window, watching the ground fall away as the plane took off. "I hope so," he murmured.

Lois walked through the newsroom with grim, determined steps. She had just filed her story for the day and she planned to spend the rest of it running down leads on Chloe. She knew that if she could just find out who had called in the tip about her abduction, she'd be a lot closer to finding out what happened to her cousin. She knew she was making the lives of local police hell, but she didn't care. They had dismissed her when she tried to file the report about Chloe, just like they had ignored the caller who claimed to have witnessed a woman's abduction.

One detective had been much more helpful, a homicide detective by the name of John Jones. Lois had been screaming at the detective in charge of Chloe's case when he had approached her and offered to help even though Missing Persons wasn't his department. He claimed that he had met Chloe a few times, and he'd be willing to do whatever he could to help. He was the one who showed her everything they had on the anonymous caller. The 911 call had been traced back to a pay phone near the docks. Security footage from a nearby warehouse showed the man, but the footage was not clear enough to pinpoint his identity. John had told her that despite this, officers had been patrolling that area and questioning any men who fit the general description of the man on the video.

After she had talked to Detective Jones she had felt much better about the police side of the investigation. Since he had known Chloe, he seemed to be more invested in the search efforts. Lois had then shifted her attention to gaining her father's help, which hadn't been difficult at all. General Sam Lane was a busy man, and maybe he wasn't going to win any awards for Father of the Year, but he wasn't about to ignore a member of his family literally being snatched from the streets of Metropolis. He'd arrived in town with all guns blazing and Lois had never been more grateful to have him there.

He'd been followed soon after by Martha, who had taken one look at Lois and simply held out her arms, causing Lois to give in to a mild breakdown. At that point it had been almost a week since Chloe had disappeared, and the strain of trying to hold it all together had begun to take its toll.

The one person whose help she did not welcome, however, was waiting by her desk again. "I have nothing to say to you, Clark."

"I care about her too, Lois," Clark responded quietly. "I know that you're angry, but I can help you find her."

"Now you care, huh? Where the hell were you when some monster dropped out of the sky and took her? I mean, you admitted to me that you had no idea what Chloe was doing in that neighborhood because you've barely spoken to her since Jimmy's death. What kind of best friend does that make you? With all of your abilities, you couldn't save someone who was your best friend for years, who protected you…" Lois felt her breath hitch as she clenched her fists and tried to calm herself down.

Finding out that Clark was The Blur had been a shock – she had been remembering more and more about her missing time, and one day it had just hit her. She suddenly knew why Clark always disappeared, why he seemed to know so much about Oliver's efforts as Green Arrow, why Chloe always turned extremely vague when it came to Clark and his activities. Once she realized the truth, she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before. She had been so wrapped up in her epiphany that it had taken her almost two days to figure out that Chloe was missing. The guilt was there, but the level of anger she had felt toward Clark once she realized that he had been MIA from Chloe's life had swamped it.

Clark took a deep breath. "You have every right to be angry, Lois. But I want to find her as much as you do, and I'll do whatever I have to do to bring her home."

Lois ignored him as she grabbed her purse and walked away. She was walking down the steps of the _Daily Planet_ when she was stopped by a few reporters.

"Miss Lane, is it true that a reward is now being offered for any information on your cousin's disappearance?" A tall, blonde reporter stuck her microphone in front of Lois.

Lois paused, quelling her irritation. "Currently we've raised $50,000 for any information that leads to Chloe's safe return. Any tips should be directed to Detective John Jones at the Metropolis Police Department."

"Actually, with my contribution the reward being offered is now $500,000."

Lois turned to see Oliver standing behind her with a tall, dark haired man she didn't recognize. The blonde reporter nearly tripped over her cameraman in her haste to get to Oliver, who simply reiterated that all information should be directed to the Metropolis Police Department. When Oliver tilted his head, she followed him away from the reporters.

They stopped near a newsstand that partially hid them from the people walking briskly along the downtown sidewalks. Lois eyed Oliver silently for a moment. Finally she said, "I guess I should thank you but first…"

Oliver reeled backwards as her fist connected with his jaw. "Jesus, Lois. That's your idea of a thank you?"

"Yeah well, if I hit Clark I run the risk of breaking my hand, so you're getting it for both of you."

Oliver rubbed his jaw as he watched her warily. "And you want to hit Clark because…why?"

Lois rolled her eyes as she poked him hard in the chest. "Please do not pretend that you don't know Clark's little secret because I am damn tired of being lied to. I figured it out, Oliver, and Clark confirmed that Chloe knew – it was a short leap after that to figure out that she knew about you too."

"I'm not denying anything," Oliver replied.

Lois suddenly shifted her attention to Hal, who was standing off to the side watching them. "Who's your friend?"

"Hal Jordan, meet Lois Lane, Chloe's cousin." At her questioning look, Oliver said, "He knows everything – well, not about Clark, but I guess that's out of the bag now. Don't worry, he won't say anything."

Lois nodded. "So, are you actually here to help, or were you planning to just throw your money around before you hit the Metropolis club scene?"

Oliver met her gaze steadily. "I'm here to help, however I can Lois. I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner."

Lois nodded. "Good. The detective I've been working with at the Metropolis PD is John Jones. He actually knew Chloe, so he's been more helpful than some of the others." A look of realization dawned on her face. "Wait, he knew Chloe; does he know you? About…"

"Yeah, he knows," Oliver said quietly. "Don't worry, I'll talk to him. What about Clark?"

"What about Clark?" Lois's lips tightened.

"I know you're angry about the secrets, but Clark could be a big help to us, Lois. Surely you realize that."

"What I know is that if he had been a real friend to Chloe, she might still be here. He's barely spoken to her since Jimmy died, did you know that? So you'll forgive me if I don't really want his help right now."

That news surprised Oliver, and he wondered if anyone really knew what Chloe had been doing before she disappeared. He had assumed Clark would know, but if Lois was right then that wasn't the case. "Where is Clark?"

Lois looked behind Oliver. "Coming down the steps of the _Daily Planet_; look, I realize that he can help you, but I can't deal with him right now. I'll talk to you later, Oliver."

Oliver watched her walk away before he turned to see Clark approaching him.

Clark nodded at Hal, his expression uncertain. "I got your message this morning."

Oliver replied to his unspoken question. "Clark, meet Hal Jordan. He's an old friend, and he knows about me and the team. He has contacts that could prove to be useful."

Clark held out his hand. "Clark Kent; I'm a reporter at the _Planet_."

Hal shook his hand. "Good to meet you."

Clark looked back at Oliver. "I was actually on my way to talk to Emil. He's been using Chloe's computers to run information searches, and I wanted to check in before I start running down leads again."

Oliver was surprised. "Emil is involved?"

Clark shoved his hands in his pockets. "Emil was the last person to see or talk to Chloe on Monday morning – the day before we think she was taken."

"And you think that she was taken that day based on the anonymous 911 caller," Oliver said, running a hand through his hair. "Lois mentioned that you and Chloe hadn't talked much since Jimmy's death."

Clark's expression closed up a bit. "No," he said shortly before adding, "I take responsibility for that. I thought I was doing the right thing, keeping her out of danger, but I was wrong."

Oliver wondered what he could have been thinking to cut Chloe off like he apparently had, but he also knew he was in no position to be throwing stones at the moment. "So you don't have any idea if she was looking into something that could have gotten her into trouble? I mean, if we can believe this witness, then her abduction doesn't sound like random street violence. Whoever took her must have had a reason."

Clark shook his head. "We're going through all of her files, but we haven't come up with many leads yet."

Oliver looked over at Hal before saying, "Mind if we tag along? I'd like to talk to Emil myself."

Clark nodded. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you came back, Oliver. Chloe will be glad too, when we find her."

Oliver noted Clark's use of the present tense and was relieved that the other man hadn't wavered in his resolve to find Chloe. He and Hal followed Clark to a neighborhood only a few blocks from the _Planet_. He looked at Clark questioningly. "Emil is at Watchtower?"

"It's where Chloe was spending most of her time," Clark replied.

Oliver looked up at the tall building. For a while after Jimmy was killed, he hadn't been able to look at the building without remembering the day he found Chloe covered in blood and crying over Jimmy's body. The sight of the imposing structure caused a visceral reaction, and he'd done his best to avoid this part of town altogether.

After he'd learned that Chloe was working from there, he had imagined her in Watchtower mode in the same room, and that image had gradually become the more prominent one. He had even found himself drawn back here once after the Toyman incident; he'd stood across the street and imagined walking in there and letting Chloe help him. Somehow he'd known that she would help him get his life back on track, that there would have been no recriminations from her. But in the end he couldn't make himself walk across the street, and it was a struggle to do it today as he followed Clark into the building.

The elevator ride was a silent one and when they exited on the top floor, Clark walked over to the double doors and pushed them open. Oliver followed with Hal, but stopped short in surprise as he took in the large room. This looked like a command post, with several computer stations and multiple monitors set up in the center of the room. Of course Oliver knew that Emil had withdrawn a significant sum from the JL account, but he'd never imagined that all of that money had gone into setting up Chloe's Watchtower.

Hal whistled as he looked around the room. "Damn, your friend was a computer wizard I take it? This is some serious equipment."

"Pretty sure she could hack into the database of her choice from here," a familiar voice said. "But we all know that was Chloe's specialty."

Oliver turned to see Victor Stone standing at the top of the stairs. He walked down, followed by Bart, Emil, AC, and even Dinah. Oliver looked over at Clark in surprise.

Clark smiled a little. "They all came as soon as they heard about Chloe. Regardless of our other differences, we all want her back."

Bart walked forward, holding a burrito in one hand. He slapped Oliver on the shoulder. "Good to see you Bossman. I have more burritos if you're hungry."

AC came forward next, followed by Dinah. "About time you got here," AC said as Dinah nodded at Oliver.

Emil adjusted his glasses. "Welcome back, Oliver."

Oliver felt something relax inside him as the ache he'd been carrying around for months eased a little. Just like that, they were all willing to accept him back. He knew that they'd have to talk some things out eventually if they planned to get the team back together, but right now finding Chloe was the main objective for all of them. Clearly, no one was interested in wasting time by pointing fingers at one another.

One of the computers pinged as a search concluded, and Victor walked over to computer station. He hit a few buttons and then looked over at Oliver. "Looks like we may have a lead on this mysterious 911 caller; we hacked the city cameras and ran searches to track Chloe's movements prior to her disappearance. What we noticed pretty quickly was that she was being followed."

Oliver walked over to stand next to Victor. "Who the hell was following her?"

"Meet Sergeant Matthew Ford of the U.S. Army. According to his military file, he was an Army Ranger for a little more than eight years and served five tours in Iraq. This obviously explains why Chloe hacked the D.O.D. system."

Hal had joined them at the computer station and he looked at Victor sharply. "She hacked the D.O.D.? How the hell did she manage that?"

Oliver snorted. "You'd be surprised what Chloe can manage with a computer and an Internet connection. So Vic, you're thinking what? That Chloe knew she was being followed and ran a search on this guy herself?"

Victor nodded. "Chloe was no green recruit, so it makes sense that she might have noticed that he was following her. But she ran that search several days before she disappeared, and she didn't throw up any red flags, so she obviously concluded that he wasn't a threat."

AC spoke up. "He also wasn't following her during the week before she disappeared. We caught him on a few cameras, always coming from the direction of the docks, and he usually headed in the direction of Watchtower, but he wasn't on any of the footage we found of Chloe during the days before she was taken."

"But if he saw her being abducted, he was still watching her," Hal pointed out. "If he wasn't trying to hurt her, then what was the point?"

Oliver shook his head. "We don't know what his intentions were, but the fact that he was stalking her doesn't exactly fill me with the warm fuzzies."

"Well, we know he wasn't the one who took her if he called to report her abduction, but that doesn't mean his interest in her was entirely innocent," Dinah agreed. "What we need to do now is find this guy and persuade him to answer our questions." Her tone indicated the type of persuasion she thought might be necessary.

"Let's find out everything we can about Mr. Ford," Clark said. "The 911 call was made from a pay phone near the docks. Maybe he lives or works in that area."

Victor went to work on the computers. "I should have what we need by this afternoon, and we can all hit the streets tonight, see if we can find this guy." He looked over at Oliver, one brow raised. "Now that you're back, how do you feel about green leather?"

"I hear it's in this fall," Oliver said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'll have to make a trip to the clock tower and get my equipment."

Victor hesitated, but then walked over and hit a button on the wall, revealing Oliver's uniform and gear. "She never gave up on you man – none of us did."

Oliver walked over and ran his hand over the leather of his uniform. He cleared his throat. "Which is why we're not giving up on her." He looked over at Hal. "Feel up to taking a spin around the city tonight?"

Hal grinned. "Thought you'd never ask."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

The group worked quietly throughout the morning. Victor concentrated on finding as much information as possible on Matthew Ford while the others went through information that Emil was pulling off of Chloe's servers.

Oliver was stunned by the amount of information that Chloe had been monitoring and processing. It appeared that she had been plugged into every traffic camera and security feed in Metropolis, and she had been monitoring all communications at the city police department as well.

"I knew Chloe had a way with computers, but I never would have believed all this was possible if not for the fact that I'm looking at the evidence right now," Oliver said to Victor. "How did she manage all of this?"

Victor shook his head. "I was surprised too. I knew she was keeping an eye on me because she would occasionally bounce messages to my internal servers."

"You talked to her?" Oliver asked.

"No, but we exchanged a few emails. She was the one who told me what happened with Doomsday. She asked me to let her know if I heard from any of the others, but I was still working on the long term project you had me on in South America."

"At least now I know how she managed that trick in the PC room," Bart chimed in, a hamburger in one hand as he paged through his own stack of papers. "She seriously freaked me out that day."

AC snorted with laughter, clearly already having heard the story. Oliver glanced at him before turning his attention back to Bart. "What trick was that?"

"I was in a PC room in Seattle, playing a killer game of World of Warcraft, when suddenly this new avatar appeared out of nowhere. She wasn't on my team, but she suddenly started helping us out and we totally annihilated the group we were battling against. She was hot too – smokin' hot – she was wearing these little shorts and thigh-high boots…"

"Ok, Bart, let's skip your virtual crush and get to the part that involves Chloe," Oliver interrupted drily.

"But that's just it! That smokin' hot avatar was Chloe, man. She hacked the game and joined in, and then she told me that Watchtower had a message for me before she disappeared."

"So you talked to her, then? What did she want?"

Bart sat back in his chair and glanced over at Dinah, who shrugged. "I think we should tell him."

"Tell me what?" Oliver asked curiously.

Bart scratched behind his ear, taking another large bite of his hamburger. "She had a plan to get the group back together," he mumbled with his mouth full. He swallowed and took a large gulp of his soda before continuing. "I thought it was kind of drastic, but Dinah said she figured it would make you pull your head out of your ass – that or kill you, even though Emil said it was safer than everything you were doing."

Oliver leaned forward, brows together, as he thought about this. "Chloe never tried to contact me."

Emil cleared his throat. "That's not precisely true, Oliver. She had been trying to reach you on all of your phones, which you left behind at the clock tower. That was the reason I came to see her here the first time. The reason I kept returning was that it seemed like she could use the help."

"So what was this plan she had for Oliver?" Hal asked. The more information they went through, and the more he heard about Chloe, the more curious he felt about the young girl who seemed to have made it her job to protect the superheroes in her world.

Bart hesitated, glancing at Dinah once again, who rolled her eyes. "Oh, let's just tell him."

"You tell him," Bart said, looking over at Oliver warily as Dinah walked over to one of the work stations and retrieved a folder. "Just remember that you were pretty much already throwing your life away."

Oliver accepted the folder that Dinah passed to him. He opened it and found several invoices on top. He read through the charges, raising his brows when he got to the coffin and the 3 ton truck. "Did her plan involve burying me alive or running me over?" He expected the others to laugh at his quip, but instead he was met with an uncomfortable silence. He looked over at Hal, who shrugged as they continued to read.

Oliver paged through the documents in the file, feeling more and more incredulous as he read through Chloe's detailed notes on what she called 'Operation Roulette.' And while he was stunned by the detail involved in the plan, he was even more astonished by how Chloe had psychoanalyzed him down to the smallest detail. She had anticipated his possible responses for each step of her plan, and she had marked the responses she thought were the likeliest.

A sudden thought occurred to him. He looked up at Emil. "She was spying on me. I found a camera on my belt buckle; I assumed Tess was behind it, but it was Chloe, wasn't it?"

"I wasn't aware that she planted a camera on your belt buckle, but I suspected that she had found some way to keep an eye on your activities. She seemed to know a lot about what you were doing," Emil replied.

"Drugging you, locking you inside a coffin, 3 ton trucks, and stealing your money," Hal said as he looked through the information in the folder. "Damn, this chic is hardcore, Ollie. It was a gamble though because it all hinged on you taking some unknown drug from an unknown woman. And as much as you like the drinking and partying at times, that's not really your MO."

Oliver laughed harshly. It wasn't much of a gamble at all, and apparently Chloe had known that. He looked over at Clark, who had remained silent. "Did you tell her?"

Clark shook his head as he met Oliver's eyes. "She was hacked into the feed that day, so she saw what happened."

Oliver felt shame wash through him. That had been his lowest point in a series of lows that had spanned the summer, and Chloe had had a front row seat for much of it. Realizing that she had witnessed his suicide attempt, and knowing that she had probably seen a lot of the drinking and screwing around that he had been doing all summer made him feel more ashamed than he could ever remember feeling.

He stood up abruptly and walked away from the table. He stood at the large stained glass window and looked out at the city. After a few minutes Hal joined him.

"That plan she came up with hinged on you being a step away from suicidal," Hal said quietly. "Did she have a reason to think that?"

Oliver shoved his hands in his pockets as he continued to look out the window. "Yeah, she did. I think that her plan would have unfolded pretty much the way she wrote it."

Hal observed his old friend. "Then you should read the rest of it because in the end she had you playing the hero."

"And maybe that was the only part of her plan that was flawed."

"I don't think so, Ollie. What I think is that this girl knows you a hell of a lot better than you know yourself right now." Oliver didn't respond and Hal walked back to the table.

Oliver stayed at the window for a while, thinking about everything that he had learned about Chloe since arriving back in Metropolis. It was clear that she had been working full time at Watchtower, dedicating herself to keeping track of everything going on in the city. Hell, she had probably extended her virtual fingers into the rest of the world too, judging by Bart's story of her crashing his game. She had to have been tracking Bart for a while in order to pull that off. It amazed him that she knew them so well; she had known that the little trick with the avatar would pique Bart's interest, just as she had known something much more drastic would be needed to rein Oliver in.

And she had apparently done much of this alone, another thing he felt ashamed of now. It had never occurred to him that his absence was really affecting anyone else. He certainly never thought that Chloe might have needed him, not with Clark always around. Only Clark hadn't been around, and Lois had been missing, and Chloe had done her grieving for Jimmy alone. And despite being abandoned by all of them as they were wrapped up in their own guilt over what happened she hadn't abandoned any of them.

He honestly didn't think he deserved that kind of loyalty, and especially not from her. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to go back to the day of Jimmy's funeral. If he could go back, he wouldn't leave her again, and maybe then she wouldn't be missing. But that was a fantasy, and the reality was that Chloe was gone. All he could do now was put everything he had into finding her.

Oliver stepped away from the window and walked over to Emil, who was back at one of the workstations pulling up information and printing it. "You were the last one to see her. How was she, really?"

Emil stopped what he was doing and turned to face Oliver. "Chloe wasn't given to sharing her feelings with me, but I think she was scared and lonely. She protected herself by staying in her tower, and monitoring the world through a virtual window meant she didn't have to actually join in."

"She had her fingers stuck in a lot of pies," Oliver observed. "What are the odds that someone followed her trail back here?"

Emil looked at Victor, who had walked over to the monitor nearest them. "Victor has been trying to determine if anyone was tracking Chloe's movements in the virtual world."

"Chloe is one of the best hackers I've ever met, and she knew how to cover her tracks. But she was plugged into so many portals that I doubt she was able to wipe out all traces of her hacking activity. It's definitely possible that someone followed one of her trails. Figuring out which trail, and who, though – that's gonna be a problem."

"An impossible problem or just a time consuming one?" Oliver questioned.

Victor sighed. "Given enough time, I could probably come up with something. But with Chloe missing, I'm afraid we don't have that kind of time."

"Then we need to divide our resources," Oliver said. "Right now, you and Emil are most useful here, going through all of this information on the servers. Vic, you should keep following her virtual trail, see whose windows she was peeking into. Emil, you continue to go through the information she was storing. The rest of us can alternate between helping out here and following leads out on the streets. We should probably make a patrol schedule too."

"Dinah and AC made up a schedule for patrol, but we'll need to change it now that you and Hal are here," Victor commented. "So Hal is really the Green Lantern?"

"Yeah, he really is." Oliver suddenly realized he'd basically just given out orders. He ran his hand over the back of his neck and shifted uncomfortably. "Sorry if I'm assuming too much. I know I'm not the leader of this group anymore."

"You act like we fired you," Dinah replied as she and AC joined their group. "You took off, and the rest of us just needed some time to process everything that went wrong. But that doesn't mean that we wanted to scrap the league, and it doesn't mean that we wanted you to stay away forever."

"I wasn't here when it happened, but I knew about what happened to Jimmy and I didn't come back either," AC said. "The truth is, I didn't know what to say to her and it was easier to stay away."

"It was easier for all of us to stay away," Dinah said. "I was the easiest one for her to find after Lois went missing. I told her that I would keep my ears open for any information that I thought would be useful, but I could have helped more."

"You were helping with 'Operation Roulette' – seriously, a 3 ton truck?" Oliver couldn't help but smile a little. "I know Bart's fast, but…"

"Yeah, well, you were spiraling downward at a speed that guaranteed you'd be hitting rock bottom soon. I figured if Chloe's plan didn't work, you were going to end up in a morgue somewhere anyway."

Dinah's blunt tone made Oliver wince slightly. "Well, don't spare my feelings, Canary."

Dinah smirked at him. "We'll leave the den mother role to Chloe when we find her – she's better at dealing with the egos of superheroes, including mine."

They all wandered back to their workstations, and Oliver found Clark upstairs. He was sitting at a desk, looking through some photos he had apparently found in a drawer. He looked up as Oliver approached before returning his attention to the photos.

Oliver took the photos that Clark handed him. Some were of Chloe with her parents when she was young; still more were of Chloe and Lois at various stages of their childhood and teenage years. Photos of teenage Chloe included Lana and Clark, and a few of her with a boy he didn't recognize. She also had some photos of her with Jimmy. To Oliver's surprise, he was in two photos that had been taken when he was dating Lois and had attended Thanksgiving dinner at the farm. One included Chloe, Clark, Oliver and Lois, but another had been taken of just him and Chloe.

He remembered that moment. He had leaned over to tease Chloe about her stealth texting under the table as he playfully tried to peek at the message, and she had tried to hide her phone behind her back as she laughingly pushed him back with one hand.

He ran his thumb lightly over the photo. He felt a weight settle in the pit of his stomach as he imagined Chloe sitting alone at this desk, looking at old photographs that tied her to her life outside the tower. It seemed too sentimental for the Chloe he knew, and he realized that he didn't actually know her very well at all.

Oliver looked up at Clark. "I think it's time to bring Lois here. She deserves to know what Chloe was working on, and she deserves to be a part of our investigation."

"What about the others?" Clark asked. "It means revealing their identities."

"I know," Oliver said. "We'll put it to a vote, but I don't think the others will object."

* * *

><p>When Oliver had called to tell her he had something to show her, Lois had never imagined anything like this. She stood in the center of what Oliver had called Watchtower and looked around at what was, essentially, a command post. "Chloe did all of this?"<p>

"Well, she had some help with the equipment, but yeah, this is all Chloe," Oliver replied, watching her closely.

Lois looked over at the tables where everyone else was gathered. Some were familiar, like Dinah and AC, but a few others she had never met before. "And they're all superheroes – part of what you call the Justice League."

"Everyone except Emil," Oliver clarified. "He's a part of the league, but he fills the role of team physician and scientist."

"He was the last person to see Chloe," Lois said. "He told me it was because Chloe came to the hospital for a checkup, but he was really helping her here, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, he was." Oliver cleared his throat. "Are you ok?"

Lois let out a little laugh as she ran her hand along one of the keyboards. "I guess I'm just in shock. My baby cousin was directing a league of superheroes and I had no idea. I mean, yeah, you were the leader, but Chloe was like your 5 star general." She was silent for a moment as her fingers drifted idly along the computer keys. "Does all of this have anything to do with what happened to her?"

"Probably," he acknowledged. "Chloe was virtually plugged into a lot of information outlets, and we're only just beginning to get a clear picture of everything she was monitoring."

"So you're assuming someone objected to her virtual snooping, and they followed the trail back to her? What about her involvement with superheroes?"

"Lois, none of us were really in touch with her after she set this up. I think it's more likely that something she was investigating got her into trouble."

"But you said that Dinah had spoken with her, and she tracked Speedy Gonzales over there to a PC room in Seattle. I mean, come on, she's probably not the only person trying to pin down the world's superheroes. What if someone else figured out she knew more than they did, and they came after her for that information?" Lois' voice was rising slightly, and Oliver could see she was getting worked up again.

"Lois, calm down. Right now all we know for certain is that the same person who called in the 911 report of her abduction was also following her in recent weeks. I think we're better off following that lead before we make any more assumptions."

"And about that – I still think we should tell my father about Sgt. Ford. He was in the Army, so the government is bound to have all kinds of useful information on him."

"And we will if what we have now doesn't pan out. But what we don't need is your father finding him before we do," Oliver countered.

Lois crossed her arms and huffed out a breath. "I know you're right, but this is hard. I'm afraid that the more time that goes by…" her voice trailed off, and she raised her hand to wipe at the corner of her eye as she took a deep breath.

"We're going to find her," Oliver said gently. "I let her down after Jimmy died – we all let her down, even if we didn't realize it then. The most important thing to all of us right now is finding her, and working together I don't think there's any way we can fail. That's why I wanted to bring you here, Lois." He gestured to the monitors and the others who were still working. "I wanted you to see that we all care about Chloe, and you don't have to worry that you're the only one out there looking anymore. We're all in this together now."

Lois stepped forward and hugged him tightly for a moment. "Thank you," she whispered. She drew back and walked over to join Dinah and AC, who were going through stacks of files.

Clark walked over to join Oliver. "You were right. I should have brought her here before now. I feel like all I've done since Jimmy died is make one mistake after another."

"Clark, speaking as someone who spent the summer stumbling down the self pity path, it's not helpful at all. We all made mistakes, with Doomsday, with Jimmy, and especially with Chloe. But if Chloe were here, I'm pretty sure she'd be telling us to suck it up already and get our asses moving," Oliver said with a smirk.

Clark smiled at that. "You know, I can almost hear her saying that. What's the plan for tonight?"

"Bart and AC will take the first regular patrol while you, Dinah, Hal and I head down to the docks and see what we can find out about Ford. Since you're a reporter, and the rest of us will be suited up, we figured you're the best one to question his coworkers."

Clark nodded. "I agree. Victor also found the address for a house he rented, so we can head there and take a look around after we check out the docks."

* * *

><p>Oliver was waiting on the roof of a nearby building with Dinah and Hal when Clark sped up. He had changed from his suit and tie into the black clothing the Blur now favored, and Oliver couldn't suppress his snort of amusement. "Seriously, Clark, we need to have a talk about this get up you're running around in lately. You look like you're headed for a Matrix con." When Clark looked down at his attire in confusion, Oliver shook his head. "Later – for now, what did you find out?"<p>

"According to his manager, he hasn't shown up for work since the night he reported Chloe missing," Clark replied. "None of his coworkers have seen him or spoken to him since then, either."

"Nobody at work he pals around with?" Hal asked.

Clark shook his head. "According to the few people I talked to, he keeps to himself and does his work, and then he heads home alone. He doesn't join them for beers after work, and he doesn't even say much when they take their lunch breaks. He seems to be a loner."

"Which makes his interest in Chloe all the more strange," Dinah said quietly. "Victor said that as far as he can tell, he doesn't have much to do with his family anymore. So what makes a loner suddenly develop an interest in a girl like Chloe?"

It struck him so suddenly that Oliver couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before. "She was a loner, too."

"What do you mean?" Hal looked confused.

"A guy like that, someone who's been in battle – he gets used to reading people. If he saw her somewhere, maybe he saw something like that in Chloe."

"You're speculating," Clark said dubiously.

"Yeah, but it makes sense. We have no evidence that he was trying to hurt her, and all the information we have on him points to him being a good soldier. He even tried to report her abduction." Oliver could feel it in his gut – he knew he was right about this.

"What the hell is that?" Dinah asked sharply.

They all turned to see a large, bird-like man standing on the other side of the roof, watching them. "You're wasting your time," the man said shortly. "He didn't take the girl."

"Who are you?" Clark stepped closer to the bird man, who drew his wings up.

"Who I am isn't important. I came to tell you that a certain group is interested in the world's superheroes. They've been tracking us for some time, and you're next on their list."

"What group?" Oliver asked.

"Checkmate," the man answered. "An old friend found out they were monitoring communications from a woman who called herself Watchtower. He went to warn her, and he ended up dead the same night she disappeared."

Oliver felt a chill go down his spine as he realized that this man had connected Chloe to Watchtower and to their group of heroes. "Are you saying that they took her to get to us?"

"I don't know who took her," the man replied. "But if it was Checkmate, then your group has been compromised." The man suddenly lifted into the air and took off into the night sky.

Moving quickly, Hal shot into the sky after him. Oliver touched the com device in his ear. "Cyborg, did you get all of that?"

"Yeah, I got it. Who the hell was that?"

"No idea, but Lantern is in pursuit of Big Bird now, so we may know more soon. Meanwhile, we're going to head over to Ford's house and see what we can find out."

"Roger that." Victor replied.

It didn't take long to reach Matthew Ford's house, and Oliver noted that Ford's route home would have taken him by Watchtower every night. When they reached the house it was dark, and they circled around to the back. Clark turned the handle sharply and broke the lock, and they all entered quickly.

Clark used his x-ray vision to make a sweep of the upper levels of the house as they went through the lower levels. "No one is here," he commented.

Dinah opened the refrigerator in the kitchen before moving on to the cabinets. "Pretty sparse supplies – my guess is he hasn't been staying here."

"Why would he leave though?" Clark asked.

"Maybe he went looking for whoever took Chloe," Oliver said. "Or maybe whoever took her saw him. Maybe he was afraid of being followed?"

"Or maybe he's just crazy," Dinah added. "His military file indicated he was suffering from PTSD, and paranoia comes with that package sometimes."

"We still need to find him. Right now he's the only lead we have on who took Chloe," Oliver said. "Why don't you guys make a sweep of the neighborhood while I look around here?"

Clark and Dinah headed out, and Oliver began to look around. Unlike most people's houses, there were not many personal effects lying around. The man obviously embraced a Spartan existence. As Oliver began checking the walls and floors for any cracks that might lead to a hiding place, he heard a clicking sound behind him. He froze and turned slowly to find Sgt. Matthew Ford staring at him from across the room. He held a Glock pointed at Oliver; his hands were steady and Oliver had no doubt he'd pull the trigger if pushed to it.

"If you move, I'll shoot you," Ford said calmly. His eyes never wavered from Oliver. "I want to know who you people are and why you're looking for me."

**A/N: Hehe, cliffhanger lol. Sorry about that, but I won't make you wait too long. I was so caught up in editing the messed up chapters for Letting Go that I didn't realize it had been two weeks since I updated this one. Next update by the weekend at latest, since the next chapter is already written and only needs to be edited. For those waiting on Ch. 11 of Letting Go, I'll get that up this week too, but it won't be tonight because I still haven't finished editing out what I now call the "symbols from hell" and it's already midnight in my part of the world. Big thanks to all who are reading this story, and especially to all who take a few moments to let me know what you're thinking. I'm a bit more nervous about this story because it includes so many characters, so if you have suggestions for how I can improve on characterization, please feel free to share. All constructive criticism is welcome! **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Oliver raised his hands slowly as he stayed focused on Ford and the gun aimed in his direction. "We're not here to hurt you. We're looking for the woman you said you saw being abducted."

"Chloe Sullivan." The gun remained steadily trained on Oliver as Ford looked him over. "Drop the bow – carefully. What do you want with her?"

Oliver carefully disengaged his compound bow from its holster and eased it to the ground by his feet. "She's a friend. We want to know what happened to her, and you witnessed her abduction. We just want to ask you some questions."

"She's a friend. You know what's funny to me? How many friends she has now that you're all too late to help her."

Oliver took a step to the left but froze again at a warning shake of Ford's head. "Hey, I just want to sit down, take it easy." He sat carefully in a worn leather chair, lowering his hands slowly while still keeping them in plain sight. "We know that you were following her. You have to admit, stalking her makes you prime suspect material in her disappearance."

Ford continued to stare at him for a moment. "I didn't hurt her."

Oliver nodded. "I believe you."

"She was alone – always, every time I saw her, she was alone – for weeks. When I reported the abduction, no one took it seriously. And then suddenly that reporter was all over the city, asking questions."

"Her cousin, Lois Lane."

Ford lowered his gun slightly. "General Lane got involved after that, and then Senator Kent – hell, there's even a billionaire throwing money in to fund the search effort. Half a million bucks to find a girl no one cared about before she went missing. And now vigilantes like Green Arrow want to help. But where were all of you before now? How do I know you aren't part of the group that was looking for her that night?"

Oliver stiffened. "What group?"

But Ford began to back slowly toward the kitchen. "Don't follow me again."

Oliver lunged off the chair, rolling and kicking a leg out to hook around Ford's ankle. He went down but rolled toward Oliver rather than away from him. Ford landed a punch to Oliver's jaw, and when Oliver grabbed his arm and tried to twist it, Ford let his momentum carry him, flipping neatly to Oliver's other side.

Oliver grabbed his crossbow and brought it up sharply as he faced Ford just as the soldier raised his gun, aiming it straight at Oliver's head. "I don't want trouble, but I will shoot you. I just want to be left alone."

Oliver tilted his head slightly, his aim just as steady as the other man's. "And I told you we're not looking for trouble either. But we're not going away until we find out what you know."

"Now, now, boys – can't we all just be friends?" Dinah stepped into the room, smiling – and then her sonic cry boomed out and shattered the window behind Ford, the force of the sound waves knocking him into the wall. He slumped down, unconscious.

Oliver lowered his crossbow. "Take your time, Canary. I only hit that SOS button on my belt five minutes ago."

Dinah smirked at him as Clark entered the room from the kitchen. "Soldier boy didn't scare you, did he? Besides, we had him surrounded – figured we'd wait to see what he had to say first."

Clark picked up Ford and said, "Where should we take him?"

"Back to Watchtower – he knows a lot more than what he's saying," Oliver replied.

* * *

><p>Thirty minutes later they had Ford secured on Watchtower's upper level. Oliver came down the stairs just as Hal arrived. "What did you find out?"<p>

Hal shook his head in disgust as he pulled off his mask. "Mostly that Birdman is damn fast. And packs a hell of a punch when you grab for the wings."

Oliver ran his hand over the back of his neck in frustration. "Why do I get the feeling that everyone knows more about what's going on here than we do?"

Emil nodded toward the upper level. "Are you sure bringing him back here was the best idea?"

"We didn't have a lot of options," Clark replied. "We can't turn him over to the police until we find out what he knows. And if what he said is true – that someone else was looking for Chloe the night she was taken – then they might be looking for him now."

"Anything on this group our mysterious Birdman mentioned?" Oliver asked Victor.

Victor shook his head. "So far I can't find anything about a group called Checkmate. I did, however, figure out that someone tried to piggyback Chloe's connection when she made contact with Bart in Seattle. It looks like they tracked her part of the way, but she shook them off before they could pinpoint her exact location."

"Can we trace it?"

"Maybe," Victor hedged. "They were bouncing their signal between various satellites."

"So the question is, were they tracking Bart or were they tracking Chloe?" Dinah asked, looking troubled. "Maybe Lois was onto something with her theory that someone grabbed Chloe as a way to get to us."

Oliver felt restless energy washing over him along with the urge to hit something. He grabbed his glasses, threw up his hood, and said, "I'm going to head out for a while, see if Bart and AC need some help."

Hal watched Oliver go out before turning to the others. "Did I miss something?"

Clark sighed and shook his head. "If Checkmate is coming after us, and they took Chloe in order to get information… it's not good."

"She knows a lot about all of you," Hal acknowledged. "So he's afraid she'll talk?"

Clark looked around at everyone as he said quietly, "He's afraid she won't."

* * *

><p>Oliver awakened abruptly the following morning, the remnants of a dream tugging at his memory. He sat up and rubbed a hand over his face, realizing that he must have fallen asleep on the couch at Watchtower. He turned his head as he heard the doors open and saw Bart coming in with bags of food.<p>

"Hey Bossman," he called out. "Got breakfast for everyone."

Oliver stood up and stretched the kinks out of his shoulders. "Where is everyone?"

Bart placed the bags on the table. "The Doc had rounds at Met Gen this morning. AC and Dinah are down at the coffee shop on the corner – totally think there's something going on there, by the way." Bart smirked as he unwrapped what looked like a breakfast burrito and took a healthy bite. "I think Stretch was planning to swing by the Planet for Lois before coming over here, Vic is recharging, and Mr. Lantern is upstairs trying to get soldier dude to talk. I don't think he's said a word since he woke up though. You hungry?"

Oliver shook his head, looking down at the T-shirt and sweats he had put on after returning from patrol. "I'm going to get cleaned up first." He grabbed his duffel bag and went into the small bathroom located on the lower level. He emerged fifteen minutes later to find Bart still eating and Hal coming down the stairs.

"He's not talking," Hal said as he removed his mask and sat down at the table. He reached over and snagged an egg and cheese bagel and one of the coffees Bart had brought in. "And I'm telling you, I don't think intimidation is gonna work on this guy. He's a sniper-trained, Special Forces soldier who's served five tours in Iraq since the war started. Vigilantes in costume aren't real scary in comparison."

Oliver sat down and accepted the orange juice that Hal handed him. "We need to find a different way to get through to him then. He was following Chloe because he felt connected to her – he cared enough to call and report what happened. If we can convince him that we're really trying to help her, I think he'll help us." Oliver tried to inject a note of confidence into his voice.

He'd lain awake the previous night for hours, trying not to think about Chloe being hurt or scared. He knew that he and the others had reached the same conclusion – that if Chloe had been taken by people who wanted to find them, she was in real trouble now. Because Oliver was very much afraid that Chloe was stubborn enough not to tell them anything, regardless of measures they might use to persuade her otherwise.

His stomach turned, and he picked at his breakfast as he listened to Hal and Bart talk about the patrol schedule for that evening. He heard the door open and looked up to see Clark following Lois into the room.

"Where is he?" Lois demanded

Oliver stood up and offered her a cup of coffee. "He's upstairs, but he's not talking yet."

"Then we make him talk," she replied through clenched teeth. "And if you can't, then I'm pretty sure my father knows people who can." There wasn't even a hint of kidding in her tone.

Clark raised his brows as he joined them. "Lois, I don't think that's the best way to approach this."

Lois' phone rang and she blew out a frustrated breath as she answered it. "What?"

Oliver shoved his hands in his pockets as he turned back to the table, but Lois' tone stopped him cold.

"I'm her next-of-kin," Lois said as her hands began to tremble. "Are you sure… it's her?"

Oliver's horrified gaze met Clark's as Bart and Hal both stood up from the table.

Lois took a deep breath as she tried to speak, but her voice cracked. Clark stepped forward and gently took the phone from her hand. "This is Clark Kent, a friend of the family." He listened for a moment and then said quietly, "No, I understand. Thank you."

Lois looked at Clark. "Please tell me I misunderstood him."

Oliver's heart was racing and his palms felt clammy. "Clark?"

Clark swallowed hard. "They found a woman matching Chloe's description down by the docks. They're asking us to come down and make a positive ID."

Lois sat down at the table and covered her face with her hands. "God, I can't do this again. I had to go to the morgue when I first reported Chloe missing… and there was a girl… but it wasn't her." She looked up at Clark, tears streaming down her face. "I don't think I can do it again."

"You don't have to," Clark said, reaching out to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "I'll go."

"I'm going with you." Oliver stood up and grabbed his jacket. He looked back at Bart and Hal. "Let the others know where we're going, but stay here with Lois, ok?"

Bart nodded, looking much more subdued than he had earlier that morning.

Oliver turned to follow Clark, but Hal stopped him. "Are you sure you can handle what you might see, Ollie? Maybe it's better to let Clark do this alone."

Oliver shook his head. "I owe it to her, Hal."

Hal clapped his friend on the shoulder and watched them leave before sitting beside Lois. "Look, it's probably not her, Lois. With missing persons cases, in a city this size, any number of women might match Chloe's general description. And if the people who took her need information from her, it's in their best interest to keep her alive."

Lois wiped her hands across her cheeks and took a deep breath. "But what happens when she doesn't tell them what they want to know? She and Clark have been best friends since grade school, and she's been protecting his secret since high school. And Oliver, and all the others – I know my cousin, and she would never do anything to hurt any of them." She stood up and walked over to the window across the room.

"She's right, you know." Bart looked at Hal somberly. "I've known Chloe for a while now, and she and Clark – they've been like this," he held up two fingers pressed together, "ever since I've known them. I think she'd rather sacrifice herself for the cause than do something that could hurt him."

Hal ran a hand over his hair, looking doubtful. "The thing is, sometimes people talk even when they don't want to." He didn't elaborate, but he knew that Bart understood what he was saying.

Bart pushed his food away, his expression pained. "I know what you're saying, but… you ever heard of the Cornfield Killer?"

Hal vaguely remembered the story of the serial killer from the Metropolis area. "Paramedic turned serial killer, right? What about him?"

"He wasn't exactly human. Davis Bloom was also the monster who went on a rampage through the city before Clark buried him underground. But before that, Davis was carrying a serious torch for Chloe. And when Chloe found out what he was and realized that we couldn't kill him, she tried to protect Clark and the rest of us by leaving town with Davis."

Hal sat back in his chair. "What happened?"

"Oliver had a plan to get her back and kill Davis, but it didn't go the way we thought it would." Bart sat silently for a moment before continuing. "The point is Chloe gave up her life when she left with Davis, and worse – I think she knew he might kill her before it was all over with. And Clark and Oliver both had a hard time dealing with it. I think it's part of the reason they both went AWOL from Chloe's life."

"So Chloe and Oliver – was something going on there? I just keep getting this weird vibe from him when it comes to her." Hal kept his voice down as he glanced over at Lois, who didn't seem to be paying any attention to them now.

Bart looked surprised as he thought about it. "I don't think there was anything going on, but there were a few times that Dinah said she thought there might be something there. She said they seemed pretty friendly after he helped rescue them from a holding facility in Black Creek."

"Black Creek?"

"Kind of a long story. But I know Oliver and Chloe had a big fight before her wedding – about something she did to rescue Clark. Oliver was pissed that she had been so reckless. He wasn't going to go to her wedding, but then he did – and I know he cancelled at least two business trips while he was helping her with Jimmy after the wedding. Then there was the divorce, and Chloe took up Watchtower duties full time. They were spending a lot of time together, but then all that stuff with Davis happened, and Jimmy was killed. He held it together for a while, helped Chloe with the funeral arrangements." Bart shrugged. "I know he cares about her. He was pretty angry when she took off with Davis, but it didn't stop him from going after her."

Hal looked up as Dinah and AC came in, followed by Victor, and Bart walked over to tell them what was going on. He mentally added what Bart had told him to the puzzle that was Chloe Sullivan. He wondered if the others might have a few more answers and resolved to try to talk to each of them privately. Oliver had gone through some reckless phases, but his recent behavior worried Hal. And if the woman at the morgue turned out to be Chloe, he knew his friend would need a lot of help dealing with the guilt that seemed to be eating away at him.

**AN: Well, this update has been a while coming. I intended for this chapter to be longer (including Clark and Oliver at the morgue) but that scene is still – off, somehow. I've been playing around with it all weekend while editing, but I'm not happy with it. Still, I wanted to post this weekend, so I decided to stop here, and I'll get back to editing the other part this week. Update for 'Letting Go' should up in the next day or so too – still tweaking a few scenes.**

**Up Next: Clark and Oliver at the morgue, Oliver and Ford have a discussion, and we learn more about both Chloe's abductor and Checkmate's involvement as Martha, Gabe and Uncle Sam are brought into the loop in the investigation.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

Oliver tried to brace himself for whatever he might see as Clark drove to the morgue at Metropolis General. He was, of course, very familiar with the concept of loss. He'd lost his parents, and over the years he'd also lost friends. He'd seen people get hurt before, and he'd seen people die. Hell, he'd faced death himself more than a few times.

But the idea of losing Chloe this way, to some unknown assailant, had his stomach so twisted into knots that he couldn't even speak. Since returning to Metropolis, he'd formed a picture of Chloe's life in recent months, and it was a grim image. Whereas he had drowned his guilt and pain in self-indulgence, Chloe had apparently pushed forward in an attempt to keep an eye on the city and bring them all back together to work as a team again. The team that he had allowed to fall apart had been important to her, much more so than he had ever realized.

He thought back to his interactions with Chloe over the past year; the times she had impressed him, amused him, and the times she had well and truly pissed him off. When he thought about it, he'd never met anyone quite like Chloe. She certainly managed to get reactions from him that he guarded against with most other people. He leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes, allowing memories to wash over him.

He'd sat with her on the jet as they returned from the Black Creek facility, and he'd held her as she cried, worried that Clark might be dead. She'd mentioned her healing ability, confused and upset that she hadn't been able to save Clark. It had startled him to learn she was meteor infected, that he didn't know something like that about her. It was one of the very few times he'd seen a side of Chloe that wasn't totally in control and equipped to handle anything with a snarky quip at the ready.

That plane trip only lasted for a couple of hours, and they hadn't actually spoken much, but he felt he had gained a new understanding of Chloe and how much responsibility she took on for protecting everyone around her. After all, she had been more upset about Clark and the fact that she had been used to track the team than she had been about being locked up herself. He'd realized then that they were very alike, and that realization had surprised him.

He'd actually had every intention of leaving Metropolis after returning with Chloe, but for reasons he hadn't wanted to examine too closely, he'd stuck around. She had started her work with Isis, and he'd dropped by a few times to check on her. But then he'd heard about her engagement to Jimmy, and the fact that she hadn't told him herself bothered him. There was no reason for it, of course, and that it bothered him also irritated him.

He'd stopped the random drop-ins, and then he'd gotten distracted by Tess and the depression that gripped him when he learned that Lionel had been responsible for his parents' death. He'd left town for a while and hadn't thought too much about her until he returned and she sought him out because she needed his help to find Clark.

He remembered his surprise when she'd shown up on his jet looking for him. He'd felt a bit unsettled, and those feelings had caused him to be short with her. Of course, Chloe being Chloe, that hadn't stopped her. She'd pushed and prodded until she'd gotten what she wanted, and by the time he'd stolen the alien computer from Tess, he'd been caught up in their little adventure.

And then she'd used her brain to power up the alien crystal. If he'd had any idea that her plan involved something so incredibly dangerous, he wouldn't have helped her. Or more specifically, he'd have found another way to help her if only because he wouldn't have trusted her to let it go.

They had argued heatedly about the risk she had taken, and her utter lack of self preservation in the matter had both infuriated and frustrated him. It had also worried him because he'd sensed that Chloe wasn't entirely Chloe anymore. So he'd gone to Clark for answers, and what Clark told him did little to ease his mind.

He'd begun to wonder how many of Chloe's decisions were her own and how many were a result of Brainiac's influence, especially after he saw the video of Chloe using her newfound power to actually hurt someone. Granted, he'd been a bad guy and a threat to Clark, but the Chloe he knew wouldn't have done that. But he also knew he couldn't talk to Chloe about it because she'd completely shut him down when he'd tried before.

He'd started doing his own research at that point. As far as he could see, Clark was doing little to help fix the problem and he'd been concerned about her going through with her wedding to Jimmy. But he'd also been unable to let go of his obsession with finding Lex, and that had won out. By the time he'd returned with Lana, it was Chloe's wedding day.

Things had gone all to hell after that, what with Jimmy's injuries and Chloe's extreme guilt over how he had been hurt. Oliver had wanted to help her, so he'd arranged for Jimmy to receive the best care, and he'd cancelled a couple of business trips in order to be available to Chloe in case she needed something.

She'd briefly opened up to him late one night as they sat in the hospital waiting room. Chloe was looking at some photos from the wedding, and Oliver had been shocked when she admitted that she didn't remember the ceremony, or even much of her engagement. They had formed a tentative camaraderie during that time, but it was tested severely when he killed Lex and Chloe learned what he'd done. It had been a defensive maneuver when he'd brought up her own actions while infected by Brainiac, and he was ashamed later that he had thrown that in her face.

But they had worked together again to defeat Davis, and when she came to him after her birthday requesting full time Watchtower duties, he'd really felt they were turning over a new leaf in their friendship. Then she hid Davis and subsequently left town with him, and right or wrong, he'd felt betrayed on a very personal level. He'd held onto his anger towards Chloe at first, but he knew Davis had to be stopped and he wasn't willing to lose Chloe in the process.

He still felt conflicted about his actions after that – with Clark and with Jimmy. And after Davis killed Jimmy, he felt the guilt of it the same way he did after he killed Lex. Throughout the arrangements for the funeral and the funeral itself, he could barely look at Chloe without seeing everything her involvement with him had cost her.

But knowing that after everything she'd lost Chloe had been spending her time devising a plan to save him from himself had gotten through to him in a way that he wasn't sure anything or anyone else would have been able to. As they pulled into the hospital parking lot and walked inside, Oliver vowed that no matter what he was about to see, he wouldn't go back to the man he'd been over the summer. If Chloe was dead, he'd damn well find out who was responsible and take them down. And if she wasn't, he'd do whatever he had to do to find her and bring her home. Either way, he wanted to live up to the hero Chloe had obviously believed him to be.

They signed in at the morgue, and they sat down and waited. Oliver could feel Clark watching him.

"Oliver, I can go in alone," Clark finally said.

God, that would be so much easier; if it was Chloe, he didn't want that image of her in his head. Oliver wanted to remember the bright and shiny girl he'd met in Clark's barn, the determined woman who'd hacked Lex's servers and confronted Dinah on a rooftop, or the persuasive Chloe who'd convinced him to allow her to upgrade QI's firewall after she'd hacked her way in during her first full time week as Watchtower. She'd really had his systems team jumping that week, and it had amused him much more than he'd let on to her.

Oliver shook his head. "She deserves better than for me to be a coward about this. You know she'd do it for either one of us."

Clark sighed, leaning forward to brace his forearms on his knees as he stared at the floor. "I know."

They were both silent after that. Finally, the morgue attendant arrived and escorted them back to a viewing room. The walls were bright white, and the room was much cooler than the one they had just come from. Oliver felt like the chill was invading his soul, and he recalled that in some Asian countries he had visited, white was bad luck because it signified death.

He shook off the random thought and tried to concentrate. He'd avoided looking at it when they entered, but he reluctantly turned his attention to the metal table in the center of the small room. White plastic sheeting had been draped over the table, and Oliver could discern the outline of a small human form beneath it. He glanced at Clark and noticed that the other man was squeezing his hands into fists; grim faced, Clark nodded the ok to the morgue attendant.

The man uncovered the woman on the table, and for a moment the scene shifted and blurred. Oliver saw pale features and short blonde hair, and he turned abruptly and stumbled back to the waiting room. He grabbed the trash can and promptly lost the little he'd eaten that morning. Sweating and shaking slightly, he slid down the wall and stared blindly into space as he waited for Clark.

When Clark came back to the waiting room, he sat beside Oliver on the floor. Neither spoke for several minutes. Finally, Clark said quietly, "She looked so much like Chloe that for a few seconds, I thought it was her."

Oliver took a deep breath and tried to settle his frayed nerves. "Me too," he admitted. "It's probably best that Lois didn't come. Even though I know it wasn't her, I'm still seeing Chloe in there."

"We're going to find her, Oliver. Chloe is one of the strongest people I know, and if she's alive she won't stop fighting."

"She's alive," Oliver replied evenly. He couldn't really entertain the alternative at the moment, not after seeing the woman in the morgue. "I think it's time that I talked to Sgt. Ford myself."

When they returned to Watchtower, Oliver barely slowed down as he headed up the stairs. He stopped at Chloe's desk and grabbed the photos he and Clark had looked at before. He turned around to find that Hal, Lois and Clark had followed him.

When he headed for the room where they were keeping Ford, Hal held out a hand. "Whoa. Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Oliver nodded his head toward the door. "You were right before. He's not afraid of us, and he's not going to talk to vigilantes in costume. But I'm hoping he will talk to Oliver Queen."

"Dammit, Ollie, the man is not stupid. He's going to know exactly who you are if you go in that room," Hal countered in frustration. "What makes you think he'll tell you anything?"

"Because he connected to Chloe on a basic human level without even talking to her. That tells me something about the kind of man he is," Oliver replied.

"I'm going in with you," Lois said firmly, stepping forward. When Clark opened his mouth to protest, she shook her head. "Don't, Clark. He knows something, and if Ollie thinks this is the way to get through to him then I'm going to help. Oliver has always had good instincts when it comes to people."

Hal clearly wasn't happy, but he moved aside. "Well, then I'm going in with you, too."

"No. If we all go in he might feel cornered. But just me, or me and Lois even… I think he'll talk to us." Oliver gazed steadily at his friend. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing here."

Hal nodded reluctantly, and he and Clark moved to the computer on Chloe's desk. Victor had wired the room where they were holding Ford with both video and audio, and all of the computers upstairs and downstairs were plugged into the feed.

Oliver paused at the door and looked at Lois. "Try to hang onto your cool in there, okay?" When Lois glared at him, he sighed and unlocked the door for them to enter.

Matthew Ford sat in a chair against the wall, his left arm and leg cuffed to the chair. The chains of the cuffs allowed some limited movement; he could stand and easily shift positions so as not to become sore, but he did not have enough range of motion to attack. Since Hal himself was a soldier, Oliver wasn't surprised by his friend's kindness.

Ford looked up as they entered. Oliver thought he saw the briefest flash of surprise in the other man's eyes, but a moment later his expression was carefully neutral. Oliver pulled two chairs forward for Lois and himself. He waited for her to sit before joining her.

He studied the soldier in front of him. With neatly trimmed brown hair, pale gray eyes, and a jaw that hinted at a stubborn nature, Ford looked like any ordinary citizen until you noted his watchful stillness. In Oliver's experience, most people weren't still, especially not in uncomfortable situations. They fidgeted, eyes darting about the room, or they talked excessively. Something told Oliver that Ford could sit there like this all day if he had to; he supposed it was the nature of a sniper-trained soldier.

Oliver knew the other man would not be the first to speak, so he decided to begin. "My name is Oliver Queen, and this is Lois Lane." When the other man said nothing, he continued. "We want to talk to you about Chloe Sullivan. We know that you're the one who called in the report of her abduction. We just want to know what you saw that night."

When Ford continued to gaze at them impassively, Oliver tried a different tack. "I know you care about what happened to Chloe. Trust me when I tell you that we're on the same side here. She's my friend, and Lois is her cousin. They're more like sisters, really. I brought some photos to show you."

Oliver leaned forward and offered the stack of photos to Ford. He thought the other man would continue to ignore them. But after a moment, Oliver could see the man wavering a bit, and he knew he'd hit upon the right approach when Ford cautiously reached out to take the photos from Oliver.

Ford's expression remained neutral, though Oliver thought he detected the barest quirk of his lips as he looked through the photos. Finally he looked up at Lois and Oliver.

"A woman like her shouldn't have been alone," Ford said.

Lois drew in a sharp breath, and Oliver reached for her hand, giving it a brief squeeze. "You're right, she shouldn't have. Did you talk to her?"

Ford regarded Oliver carefully as if to gauge his reaction. "No. I didn't want to scare her."

Oliver nodded, keeping his own expression neutral. "She knew who you were, though. She ran a computer search on you about a week before she disappeared."

"I knew she had noticed me. It was surprising because I've learned how not to be noticed. So I stopped following her. But I passed her building on my way home every evening. I just wanted to make sure she was ok." Ford glanced back at the photos. "But I knew she wasn't afraid of me when she brought me some food one night."

Oliver felt a pang in his chest as he pictured Chloe reaching out to a stranger. Had she felt so alone that initiating friendly contact with this man comforted her in some way? Or had there been another reason? "Chloe is a very kind person, and she's a good judge of character. She obviously didn't feel threatened by you."

Ford looked up at Oliver again. "I know who you are. And since Metropolis is suddenly home to half a dozen vigilantes, I'm assuming Chloe knows who you are too."

"Yes," Oliver replied. "Like I said, she's our friend. None of us will stop looking until we find her."

Lois apparently felt she'd been silent for long enough. "What did you see that night?"

When Ford didn't reply, Oliver prompted him. "Look, whatever you say you saw, no matter how unbelievable, we'll listen. I know the police dismissed your report as crazy, but I've seen a lot of things in this world, and I know you're not crazy."

Ford sighed. "I know what I saw, but honestly, my mind has been to some strange places since my last tour in the Middle East. The docs say I have PTSD… and I guess I do because everything I've seen in the past ten years seems like it's on a looping reel in my head. After that night, I started wondering if I imagined part of it."

"But you definitely saw her being abducted?" Lois asked impatiently. "You called it a shadow."

"I was across the street sitting on a bench. It was the night after she brought me food, and I was thinking about talking to her. She came outside and I saw this black shape drop straight down from the top of the building. I started running but…" he shook his head. "It landed behind her and then they were gone, straight up into the sky. The whole thing was over in seconds."

Oliver tried to focus on his questions and not on that disturbing image. "So this 'shadow' could fly? Can you give us details on size?"

"No larger than a man about your size," Ford answered. "But bulky… and the arms had something like wings when it dropped down, but I heard a very distinct mechanical sound before they went up. It occurred to me later that it could have been using some sort of grappling hook."

"A grappling hook," Oliver repeated, puzzled. That sounded more man than monster to him. "Could the shadow have been a man in costume? Like another vigilante?"

"Yes, but not one I've read about around here. I've read about Green Arrow and the Blur in Metropolis, and I know there are others here now looking for your friend. You weren't the first people to come to my house. It's why I left."

"Who else came?" Lois asked, leaning forward.

"A masked girl with blonde hair and a man who looked like a big bird. I heard them talking to one another. I also saw the man talking to you last night."

Oliver nodded. "We don't know him, though. He warned us about a group called Checkmate. Do you know anything about them?" He had a feeling Ford had been lurking about watching everyone involved.

"No. But after Chloe and the shadow disappeared, I started looking for them. And a couple of nights later, I ran across a group of six men who were searching the same area where she disappeared. They carried military issue weapons and they moved like a specialized task force unit. When they started looking for me, I made sure I couldn't be found."

Oliver thought about this. If Birdman could be believed, then it sounded as if there were at least three different players in this story; whoever took Chloe, the group Birdman belonged to, and then the mysterious Checkmate, which sounded like a government group of some sort. Checkmate was apparently a foe of the second group, and he concluded that the task force unit Ford saw might have been part of Checkmate. So then who actually took her, and were they friend or foe?

"Look, I think you could be an asset to our group," Oliver finally said. "We all want to find Chloe, and I think you can help. Either way, we're not interested in hurting you or holding you prisoner. If you want to leave, I'll trust you not to reveal what you know about us. But I'm hoping you'll decide to help us."

Ford stared at Oliver and then looked down at the photos he was holding. He held up one of Oliver, Clark, Lois, and Chloe on Thanksgiving at the farm. "She was happy here. What happened to her?"

Oliver tried to clear the lump in his throat. "Chloe cared about saving the world more than she cared about saving herself. You're a soldier, so I know you can understand that."

The other man nodded. He held up the arm that was chained to the chair. "I'm not sure how I can help, but I'll stay."

Oliver pulled the keys from his pocket and unlocked the cuffs. Ford stood up and flexed his shoulders to relieve the stiffness. "So I'm guessing this is the vigilante headquarters?"

"Something like that," Oliver answered. "Lois, I think it's time we talked to your dad and see if he knows anything about a group called Checkmate. It sounds like that group and the task force looking for Chloe the night she disappeared could be one and the same."

Lois nodded. "I think Mrs. K should be there too. They're not going to have the same contacts, but if this group is government, we may need them to pool their resources."

"Ok, see if everyone can meet at the Clocktower this afternoon. It's secure and we won't have to worry about anyone listening in. Ford, you're welcome to join us for that meeting if you like. But for now, there are a few people downstairs I'm going to introduce you to."

Ford glanced at Lois, who was already on the phone. "Lead the way."

**A/N – First, I have to say S8 was not my favorite, so I never watched any of the episodes more than once (though I admit to watching some of the Chlollie scenes more than once ;-) If I flubbed something here in my reinterpretation, let me know. **

**Hopefully Oliver's thoughts back to events from S8 give you some reference. I don't think anything directly contradicts S8 events, but I wanted to give some depth to his friendship with Chloe. I always thought that the way Oliver reacted to Chloe hiding Davis, he felt betrayed on a personal level. She was his friend and he trusted her, and she had lied to him. Plus, it always seemed that he waffled back and forth a bit between friendly and detached – this was my attempt to give some explanation for that as well. **

**Anyway, I haven't had a lot of time for editing lately since I just moved to a new country for a new teaching job and I'm still getting settled. I have more written but this is all I had time to edit. I'll try to get more up soon. Also, if any of you are reading 'Letting Go' I started posting images of dresses for the QI Gala a while back at my LiveJournal page. I've also added more images for my original characters (including Mrs. Chandler, finally) and I've created a Master Fic List with summaries for future story projects. If you're interested, find me at LJ under Poetgirl925 and go to the Master Fic List. By clicking on the link for 'Letting Go' you can find everything related to that story. All other stories and future projects are on the list as well. **

**Thanks to all who are reading and to all who review! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 5**

General Sam Lane and Martha arrived together at Oliver's penthouse, and he quickly ushered them in to join the others waiting in his living room. Hal was there, as was Lois, Clark and Ford. Oliver saw both the General and Martha eyeing Hal and Ford curiously.

Oliver cleared his throat. "Thank you for coming. We have some information that might help find Chloe, and we felt it was best if we all laid our cards on the table and compiled what we know."

General Lane looked at Oliver impassively. "I'm going to be blunt, Mr. Queen. Other than your very brief relationship with my daughter, there is no indication your path has crossed with Chloe's. It makes me wonder why you're involving yourself in this investigation to this degree and to the tune of almost half a million dollars."

Lois spoke up before Oliver could. "Chloe worked for Queen Industries as a consultant. She and Ollie had more contact than people realize, and they're friends, and I'm grateful to have him here. Maybe you'd know these things if you blew through town more than once or twice a year."

The General's expression hardened, and Martha quickly intervened. "I think the best thing is to all agree that we want to find Chloe, and we're all here for that reason."

Sam Lane relented. "You're right, Martha. I would like to know who these people are and why they're here." He nodded toward Hal and Ford.

"Hal Jordan is a friend of mine from California. He's a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft – I'm sure you're familiar with those government contracts? He's here on his own time as a friend." At the General's nod, Oliver continued. "This is Sergeant Matthew Ford, U.S. Army. He's here because he's the witness who reported Chloe's abduction." Martha and the General both reacted with the surprise that Oliver had expected.

"I want to know why you're only coming forward now, Soldier." The General's tone was demanding and sharp. Oliver watched as Ford straightened his bearing, suddenly every inch the soldier he used to be.

"Sir, I reported what I witnessed immediately, but it was hard to explain what I saw. The police did not take it seriously. I looked for her myself after that, but there were others out looking too. I felt it was better to go to ground and let the enemy come to me, sir."

"At ease, Soldier," the General replied, his eyes locked on Ford. "Who else was looking for my niece?"

Ford shook his head, relaxing a bit. "I don't know that, sir. All I can tell you for sure is that it was a military trained tactical group. They had weapons and they swept the area in a coordinated way not unlike the Army's Special Forces. And they were definitely looking for Chloe Sullivan."

"Why the hell would the military be looking for Chloe?"

_And here's the fun part_, Oliver thought. "General, I'm sure that you're aware of Chloe's involvement with the Isis Foundation and her work with the meteor infected."

"I know she took over the running of the Foundation from her friend, Ms. Lang," he replied shortly. "Are you implying that one of her clients is responsible for this?"

"No. But Chloe learned a lot about the strange things that go on in both Smallville and Metropolis over the years, and she used that information to help some people who fight crime off the grid."

"You're talking about vigilantes," the General said. "The Blur, Green Arrow, and others that have been sighted in Metropolis recently. You're saying my niece had a relationship with these so-called heroes?"

Oliver phrased his answer carefully. "We believe she helped them by giving them information, yes."

Martha looked concerned by the direction of the conversation. "Mr. Queen, what does that have to do with Chloe being abducted? Surely if she was helping them then they aren't suspects."

"No," Oliver agreed. "But one of them approached Lois to tell her that a group called Checkmate had been coming after them for a while, and they believed this group might have taken Chloe." That was the story they had all agreed was most logical given Lois's high profile in the search and her status as a reporter.

While Martha clearly knew something else was going on, it appeared that the General didn't doubt the explanation. He turned to his daughter. "And you didn't come straight to me with this information?"

Lois took a breath, obviously trying to hang onto her temper as she continued. "That is why we're here. The person who came to see me also gave me a lead on Sgt. Ford. After I talked to him, he agreed to come forward and help us."

"Who came to talk to you?" Lois's father was using the same tone on his daughter that he'd used on Ford, but it didn't have the same effect.

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. I believe that they were telling me the truth when they said that Chloe was a friend to their group, and they are taking an interest in finding her and bringing her home safely." Lois raised her brows defiantly, crossing her arms as she sat back. "I'm not going to give up a source that might lead to finding her."

The General seemed to recognize a Lane vs. Lane stalemate. "What did they tell you about the group they called Checkmate?"

"Only that they believed the group was government sanctioned and they were interested in the world's heroes."

"I have no knowledge of a group like that," her father replied, "and I wouldn't endorse a military interest in lawbreakers. I believe most of the metas are dangerous and should be watched, possibly locked up. And the government has valid concerns about vigilantes that are being addressed behind closed doors even now."

"Does that include Chloe? Because you should know that she's meteor infected, too," Lois said quietly. "That's why she took over Isis. She wanted to help other people like herself. And if she was helping certain heroes, then she had a good reason for it."

Oliver shot a look at Lois; that information wasn't part of the plan. He wondered where she was going with it, especially since Lois had only become aware of Chloe's former ability after her abduction.

For the first time, a crack appeared in the General's composure. "Chloe has a meta ability?"

Lois shook her head. "It's dormant now, but at one time she had the ability to heal people, and she used it to save my life. Her ability is the only reason I'm sitting here now talking to you. And you _know_ that she would never hurt anyone. Do you really think she should be on some government list or locked up and studied?"

"She saved my life too," Clark added, glancing at his mom. "Her ability took a lot out of her, though. The last time she used it, she didn't have a heartbeat for eighteen hours."

_Jesus_. Oliver fought the shock that ripped through him at that information. He had learned about Chloe's former ability the year before when she failed to heal Clark at the Black Creek facility. What he hadn't realized was that it took that sort of toll on her. By Clark's account, it had literally killed her. And yet she hadn't hesitated to try using it to save Clark a second time.

The news had a similar effect on General Lane. "How is that possible?"

Clark shook his head. "We don't really know, but the meteor rock was concentrated in her heart. She still has meteor rock in her system, or she did last year. But she hasn't been able to use her ability for more than a year. Even after the effect it had on her, I know of at least one time she's tried and failed to use it since then."

Lane was silent for a moment. "I have people I can talk to through unofficial channels."

"I have some information on Checkmate that might be useful," Martha said quietly.

"Mom?" Clark looked surprised, and Martha reached over and squeezed his hand.

"Clark, I had no idea that they might be mixed up in Chloe's disappearance. Really, what I know is mostly rumors. But because Kansas is a ground zero for people with meta abilities, I've been trying to learn more about them. One thing I can tell you is that the people who came to Lois are right – they are an off grid, government sanctioned group, and they are rumored to be recruiting people with abilities. Their recruitment methods are known for being forceful."

"They may be government sanctioned, but if I find out they've abducted my niece and have forced her to join their ranks, heads will roll when I find them. I don't care how high up they are."

Oliver looked at Lois's father, surprised by such an emotional response from him. He was usually very contained and authoritative, but it appeared that Chloe's disappearance had taken a toll on him as well.

Martha said, "Sam, have you ever heard of a group known as the Suicide Squad?"

"I've heard the name. Their missions are black ops only, usually overseas."

"I believe they're part of Checkmate, or they at least work together. Again, these are rumors, but my source is reliable. And from what I've heard about the Suicide Squad, many of their members have a criminal record, including the ones with meta abilities. Their service commutes a portion of their sentence."

"Do you think they would have targeted Chloe based on her former ability or simply because she was connected to known vigilantes?" The General directed his question to Martha.

She shrugged helplessly. "It could be either. I had no idea that Chloe was meteor infected."

General Lane looked thoughtful. "Chloe and her mother – my sister – were caught in the meteor shower while driving through Smallville. If Chloe was infected, then Moira might have been too. It might explain why she disappeared."

"Your sister is safe," Oliver replied. "She found Chloe a few years ago, and you're right – she was infected. But she's in a catatonic state now, a side effect of her ability. I offered to help, and I've made sure she's taken care of while doctors try to find a way to help her."

"God, Chloe never told me that," Lois murmured, looking upset.

The General studied Oliver. "You're not going to tell me where she is, are you?"

"No. That's something that you'll have to talk to Chloe about when we find her. And we will find her." Oliver met the General's gaze steadily.

"Agreed." General Lane stood and held out his hand. "Mr. Queen." He then faced Ford, who quickly stood and saluted. "Your efforts in finding my niece are appreciated, soldier. And Lois – your sister is here now. She's at the volunteer center with Gabe."

Lois nodded. "I'll go by there this afternoon." She walked with her father to the door.

Oliver looked at Clark. "Gabe – that's Chloe's father, right?"

"Yes. He got here a couple of days before my mom and the General. He's taken a temporary leave of absence from work until we know more about what happened to Chloe."

"Chloe and her father – were they close? I just always got the impression that he hasn't been around much."

Clark shook his head. "He hasn't lived here in a while because he had to move to find work. I tried to talk to Chloe about her dad last year, before the wedding but… she wouldn't really say anything."

Oliver had a feeling that Chloe's relationship with her father might have suffered from all the lies just like her relationship with Jimmy had. And he was beginning to realize that Chloe had sacrificed a lot more over the years than he would ever have guessed.

"Ollie, Ford and I are going to head back. Victor said earlier he wants to try out a new program to recreate Chloe's abduction based on what Ford can remember from that night. Are you coming back now or do you need to head into the office for a while?" Hal shot him a questioning look.

"You go ahead. I need some air, but I'll come back in later this afternoon," Oliver replied. He started walking towards the door, but Hal stopped him.

"Want some company?"

"No, but thanks. I'll see you later."

* * *

><p>Oliver walked into the community center where the volunteers to find Chloe had set up camp. He looked around, surprised by the number of people there on a weekday afternoon. People from all age groups, in fact, including a number of teenagers and university students, were milling about. Some were manning tip lines while others worked on the posters that Oliver had seen up around Metropolis.<p>

The fact that the community had pulled together to find a missing girl was heartwarming, but Oliver knew part of it was the manner in which she had disappeared. An anonymous tipster, a mysterious abduction by a shadowy figure, coupled with a family member who worked for one of the biggest newspapers in the country – it all made for a good story. Throw in a genuine Uncle Sam and a U.S. senator, and it was no wonder that the search effort had drawn people in droves. For the first time, he began to wonder if so much media attention was wise given that they didn't know what Chloe's present circumstances were.

"Bigger than you expected?"

Oliver turned to see a teenage girl no more than seventeen standing behind him. She was dressed in jeans and a simple blue shirt, her long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, and she was gazing at Oliver with something akin to suspicion.

"A lot of people want to know what happened to Chloe," she continued. "Including you, I guess, since you donated so much money to the search effort."

"Chloe is a friend of mine," Oliver said. "I take it you know who I am – it puts me at a bit of a disadvantage."

The girl held out her hand, shaking his briefly. "I'm Courtney Whitmore. Many of the volunteers are local high school and university students, and we're getting more volunteers every day."

"Then I guess I should thank you for taking the time to help, especially if you didn't even know her," Oliver replied.

"I am a little surprised to see you here. We all kind of thought the money you donated was where your participation would end. Your lifestyle certainly makes the pages of the _Daily Planet_ more colorful."

He fought the urge to wince. It was definitely awkward to be taken to task by a teenage girl who apparently disapproved of the little she knew about him. "I'm keeping to a straighter and narrower path these days."

She regarded him curiously. "Because Chloe is your friend?"

"She deserves that – and I know she'd do it for me." Oliver glanced around the room. "I was actually wondering where I can find Gabe Sullivan."

"Mr. Sullivan is in the back with a couple of police detectives. I think he was getting an update," she answered. "I'll take you."

Oliver followed Courtney to the back where a man who appeared to be in his mid-forties was talking to two plainclothes detectives. They stopped near the desk and waited for Gabe Sullivan to finish talking to them. When the detectives shook his hand and left, Oliver stepped forward.

"Mr. Sullivan, I'm Oliver Queen." He held out his hand, noting that Gabe Sullivan paused before accepting it.

"Mr. Queen. What can I do for you?"

Oliver looked over at Courtney, who said, "I'm just going to check on the new posters, Mr. Sullivan. And Toby was going to make a food and coffee run. Are you hungry?"

Gabe shook his head. "Thanks, Courtney, but I'll be having dinner later with Senator Kent and the General. And you can let everyone know that there's really nothing new to report. The detectives have been following up on leads, but…" he shook his head.

Courtney's expression was sympathetic. "We'll find her."

Gabe smiled without humor as she walked away. "The optimism of youth."

"I happen to think she's right, though. I know I won't stop looking until we do find her."

"I've been curious about something," Gabe said, leaning against the edge of the desk. "Why do you care so much whether or not my daughter is found? I know you dated my niece briefly, and Lois told me that you and Chloe are friends, but I have a hard time imagining a close relationship between you and my daughter."

"Chloe occasionally works as a consultant to Queen Industries," Oliver replied carefully. "She's smart, and I've always appreciated that about her. She's pulled my ass out of the fire more than once. But you're right – we didn't have a close relationship, even though she's one of the few people I trust implicitly. And that's probably my fault. I've never been good at letting people in."

"Well, something you have in common with Chloe, then." Gabe looked down at his hands as he spoke, but Oliver didn't miss the flash of pain that crossed his features. He could see now how difficult his estrangement from Chloe had been, and he knew he'd made the right decision in coming.

Oliver reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the pictures that he'd brought. "I know that Chloe hasn't been good at communicating with people over the last couple of years. She hasn't had the easiest time of it lately, and I'm sorry to say that I contributed to that. But her relationships with everyone in her life mattered to her more than she let on." He handed over a few of the photos and watched as Gabe looked through them.

There was a photo of a very young Chloe with both her parents; a pig-tailed Chloe sat atop her father's shoulders while her mother looked up at her, and there were a couple of just Chloe and her father. Oliver's favorite was of a gap-toothed Chloe grinning as she held up a first place spelling bee trophy. Another showed Chloe and Gabe with Martha, Jonathan and Clark, who had apparently won a blue ribbon at a county 4-H competition.

Gabe's eyes were a little glassy as he looked up. "Where did you get these?"

"Clark and I went by her office and found them. Lois told me that she put away most of her photos after her divorce. She kept these out where she could look at them often – they were important to her. I thought you'd like to know that."

The older man cleared his throat. "Thank you. And while I appreciate the money you donated to Chloe's fund, this… this tells me more about the man you are. My daughter is lucky to have a friend like you."

Oliver smiled wryly. "I think I'm the lucky one. And I intend to tell her that as soon as we find her."

"I'm having dinner later with my nieces, Martha, Clark and Sam. You're more than welcome to join us," Gabe offered.

"I second that."

Oliver turned to see Lois approaching with a younger woman he assumed was her sister Lucy.

Lois looked surprised to see him. "Ollie, I didn't know you were coming over here."

"I wanted to give your uncle some of the photos we found," Oliver said.

Lois glanced at the remaining photos in Oliver's hands – the ones from Thanksgiving three years before. Her expression softened as she looked over at Gabe. "Chloe must have pulled a lot of her childhood photos out recently because I know they were boxed up after her divorce. I saw a lot of them when she put away the wedding photos."

Gabe smiled as he held up the spelling bee photo. "This was always one of my favorites, but Chloe never liked it because of her missing tooth."

Lois groaned. "She gloated about that trophy for months because spelling was not my thing." She stepped closer to Gabe to look at the other photos. "God, she was cute when she was little. What is she, about four in this picture?" She pointed to the one of Chloe on Gabe's shoulders.

"She was four," he confirmed. "We went to the zoo that day. I remember because of the stain on her dress. She spilled her ice cream."

Oliver felt a hand on his arm. Turning his head, he saw Lucy smiling up at him. "So will you be joining us for dinner, Oliver? I feel like I'm the only member of the family who hasn't gotten to know you."

Before Oliver could answer, Lois spoke up. "Really, Lucy? Is this why you suddenly showed up? Because Oliver Queen was involved in Chloe's search?"

Lucy's entire demeanor changed as dropped her hand from his arm and turned to glare at her sister. "For your information, I was already planning to come. I had to give my employer a few days' notice so they could find a replacement, and I had to pack up my apartment in Paris since I knew I probably wouldn't be back before my classes start next quarter. Chloe's my cousin, too, you know."

"I shouldn't have said that," Lois said with a sigh, watching her sister stalk off. "Lucy loves Chloe. They get along better than Lucy and me because Chloe always seemed to understand her, and she had more patience with her. I don't know what's wrong with me lately."

"We're all under a lot of stress." Gabe put his arm around her shoulders in a brief hug. "Just go talk to her."

She nodded. "So, Ollie, are you coming to dinner?"

"No, I have some things I need to check on at the office." Oliver held his hand out and shook Gabe's once more. "Mr. Sullivan, please let me know if there's something I can do to help."

"Please call me Gabe," the other man answered. "Thanks for coming by."

Oliver placed his hand on Lois' shoulder and squeezed lightly. "I'll talk to you later." As he was leaving, he saw Courtney talking to a man near the far exit. His appearance was a little scruffy with his stubbled jaw and rather grumpy expression, hands in the pockets of his leather bomber jacket. The dark haired man suddenly glanced up and his eyes met Oliver's.

Oliver felt a strange sense of familiarity, almost as if he should know the other man. But he was certain they had never met. He shrugged it off and looked away as he walked outside. He had to stop by Queen Industries and get some files and reports in order to start catching up on business. And then it was back to Watchtower.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, Oliver stood with the rest of the team as Victor's program began to finalize a recreation of Chloe's abduction. The image came up, and as it began to sharpen, his brows drew together. A figure representing Chloe stood in front of Watchtower as a black shape descended from above. Just as Ford had described, the shape looked like a strange shadow with outstretched arms that resembled wings.<p>

"Is this accurate?" Oliver asked Ford.

Ford nodded. "As much as I can remember, anyway. But yeah, it looks like the shadow I saw."

"Holy shit," Dinah muttered. "I think I might know where to start looking."

"You know who this is?" Oliver questioned sharply.

"Not exactly, but I've heard stories the last year or so about a vigilante in Gotham. They call him Batman – I've never seen him personally, but I did see a police sketch based on a witness report. This looks a lot like that sketch."

"Why the hell would some vigilante from Gotham take Chloe? Could he be working for Checkmate after all?" Hal asked.

Dinah shook her head. "I doubt it – based on stories I've heard, he's a loner. There's been no report of team activity or of him being seen anywhere other than Gotham. I started following the reports pretty closely because I thought he might be someone to approach later about joining the League."

Oliver pushed away from the desk and pulled out his phone to call his assistant. "I need the jet ready for tomorrow afternoon. I have business in Gotham that may take a few days. I'll be checking in from there."

When he hung up, Hal said, "Ollie, man you can't just take off after this guy by yourself."

Oliver sighed. "If the whole team goes, it will draw too much attention. Queen Industries has a satellite office in Gotham, and I periodically have business with Wayne Enterprises. I can pass this off as legitimate business. And we might scare this guy off if we're out en masse."

"I am going with you," Hal countered evenly. "You can't exactly stop me – it's not like I need your jet to get there."

"Fine, you're going." Oliver turned away, but then he looked back at Hal. "Thanks."

* * *

><p>Oliver patrolled with Clark and Dinah later, but everything was quiet in the city. It was almost a disappointment because Oliver thought he probably would have enjoyed a good fight or anything that would take his mind off the worries that had invaded his every waking thought. It had now been more than two weeks since Chloe's abduction, and two weeks was a long time for someone to be hurt or in danger. And with every day that passed, the sick feeling in his gut seemed to grow.<p>

After his patrol, Oliver headed back to Watchtower. Rather than join the others who were eating a late dinner, he took a seat at the stained glass window and gazed out at the bright, full moon illuminating the darkness. He pulled out the photo of him and Chloe from Thanksgiving. Ford was right – she had been happy that day.

He leaned his head back against the wall and stared at the moon. Oliver suddenly found himself wondering if Chloe could see the night sky wherever she was. And it reminded him of another night and another moon; a night when he began to see Chloe as more than Clark's friend or Lois' cousin.

"You okay?" Hal leaned against the wall beside the window.

"Yeah. Just thinking." Oliver looked back at the photo before sliding it into the pocket of his jacket.

"You've been doing a lot of that lately," Hal observed. "She means a lot to you."

"Yes," he answered quietly. "More than I realized, I guess."

"She seems like a pretty amazing woman. I've been talking to the team about her… about you. Dinah seemed to think something was going on between you two. Said you two fought a lot last year, but then you were spending a lot of time together when she took over Watchtower. She also said she's never seen you as angry as you were when Chloe left town with Davis Bloome."

"Nothing was going on between us. And of course I was angry when she left with Davis. She lied to me and she put herself in danger." Oliver was silent for a minute. "Nothing was going on but… I did think about it once." He remembered that night well. He and Chloe were leaving Isis, and he said something that made her laugh. He couldn't remember what he'd said, but what he did remember was how she had looked up at him and smiled, the moonlight making her seem almost ethereal. The urge to kiss her had hit him out of nowhere, and he had avoided her for days afterward.

"You thought about it," Hal repeated. "But you didn't do anything about it?"

"No. It seemed wrong, and it was an out-of-the-blue kind of moment, you know? The thing is though – I can't stop thinking about it now." Oliver looked back out the window.

"You'll get another chance when we find her."

Oliver kept his eyes on the moon, hoping Chloe could see it too. "I hope so."

* * *

><p>Chloe sat alone on the floor of the dark room. There was a window, and she had a clear view of the night sky. It had become a ritual of sorts, staring at the moon each night. And tonight it was large and bright, the sky clear for once and dotted with stars. It was the sort of thing that would have given her hope before. Before her meta ability – before Lex, Brainiac, and Davis. Before Jimmy died in a pool of blood on the Watchtower floor. Before she was alone.<p>

She was afraid her ability to hope had become so impaired she'd never get it back. Now, she mostly felt tired and numb when she woke each day. But at night, in the dark, the fear crept out. The fear and the pain and everything else she repressed in the light of day. Eyes on the moon, she drew her knees to her chin and let the tears slip silently down her cheeks.

**A/N: Sorry for the long delay with updates. My teaching schedule is rather demanding, and I've had a cold the last few days. I edited this chapter while on cold meds, so forgive any mistakes if you find them. I have updates coming soon with Wild Side, Letting Go and the Baby Queen series as soon as I can find time to finish editing. Wild Side probably up first, though.**

**Also, for readers at FF – I have begun posting a new story titled 'A Walk on the Wild Side' at Live Journal. However, right now I will only be posting it in the Chlollie forum at LJ, so if you want to read it then you'll need to go my LJ page under Poetgirl925.**

**Up Next: We get part of the story from Chloe's POV, and Oliver and Hal head to Gotham to look for leads on the Bat. **


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